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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has seized 13 years of income tax records of British MP Tulip Siddiq, niece of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, as part of an ongoing investigation in Bangladesh.
Officials have also confiscated RAJUK documents of a flat registered under Tulip’s name at Janata Housing Society on Ring Road in Dhaka’s Shyamoli.
Confirming the development on Wednesday, ACC Director General Md Akhtar Hossain said: “An officer can seize any tax document for scrutiny if it is deemed necessary during an inquiry.”
The documents were collected from the office of the deputy tax commissioner of Tax Circle 122 under Tax Zone-6 by the agency’s Deputy Assistant Director Abdullah Al Mamun, bdnews24.com reports.
These records, now part of a case filed by ACC’s Dhaka-1 Integrated District Office, reportedly include details of a Gulshan flat allegedly received as a bribe from Eastern Housing Limited.
Spanning 87 pages, the tax files cover assessment years 2006–07 to 2018–19.
Each return from 2006–2015 lists an annual expense of Tk 500,000 under “Advance Towards Developers”.
In her 2015–16 return, Tulip declared that she gifted the Gulshan flat to her younger sister Azmina Siddique Ruponti through a notarised deed dated 21-06-2015 (Reg. No. 01).
The documents also note Tulip has not filed any returns since 2018–19.
On April 15, the ACC filed a case accusing Tulip of receiving a flat in Gulshan’s Road 71--Unit 11A and 11B, previously B/201 at House 5A and 5B--from Eastern Housing without making any payment, in exchange for arranging the “illegal transfer” of a Dhaka plot.
The case also names two RAJUK officials accused of helping her formalise ownership through registration.
Investigators probing “irregularities” in Tulip’s Dhaka and UK properties say the Gulshan plot was first allocated in 1997, during Hasina’s first term in office.
Earlier, on April 13, a Dhaka court issued arrest warrants against 53 people, including Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana, Rehana’s children Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby, Tulip, and Azmina, over alleged abuse of power in securing a 30-katha plot in Purbachal.
Tulip, currently MP for Hampstead and Highgate in London, resigned as a UK City minister in January amid growing scrutiny over alleged irregularities tied to properties and project dealings in both Bangladesh and the UK.
Her lawyer, however, dismissed the ACC’s allegations against her as “entirely false” and politically motivated.
On April 14, she told UK journalists: “There is no evidence that I have done anything wrong.”
She claimed to be a “victim of politically motivated propaganda” by the Bangladesh government.
When bdnews24.com reached out for Tulip’s comment on the matter, a spokesman on her behalf said: “If this is a serious process and not a political smear campaign, why won’t the ACC engage with Tulip’s lawyers who have written to them twice over the last few weeks?
“She is a UK citizen, born and living in London and representing her constituents in the British Parliament.
“She is yet to hear anything officially, but they know where to reach her – and that’s clearly not in Dhaka.”